How Couples Meet and Stay Together (HCMST), Wave 1 2009, Wave 2 2010, Wave 3 2011, Wave 4 2013, Wave 5 2015, United States

How Couples Meet and Stay Together (HCMST) surveyed how Americans met their spouses and romantic partners, and compared traditional to non-traditional couples. This collection covers data that was gathered over five waves. During the first wave, respondents were asked about their relationship status, including the gender, ethnicity, and race of their current partner, as well as the level of education of their parents. They were also asked about their living arrangements with their partner, the country, state, and city the respondent and/or the respondent's partner resided in most from birth to age 16, and whether the couple attended the same high school/college/university, or grew up in the same town. Information was collected on the legal status of the relationship, the city/state where the partnership was legalized, and how many times the respondent had previously been married. Additionally, respondents were asked about how often they visited with relatives, which gender they were most attracted to, their earned income in 2008, and the length of their current relationship. Finally, respondents were asked to recall how, when, and where they met their partner, how their parents felt about their partner, and to describe the perceived quality of their relationship. The second wave followed up with respondents one year after Wave 1. Information was collected on respondents' changes, if any, in marital status, relationship status, living arrangements, and reasons for separation where applicable. The third wave followed up with respondents one year after the second wave, and collected information on respondents' relationships reported in the first two waves, again including any changes in the status of the relationship and reasons for separation. The fourth wave followed up with respondents two years after Wave 3. In addition to information on relationship status and reasons for separation, Wave 4 includes the subjective level of attractiveness for the respondent and their partner. Wave 5 collected updated data on respondents' changes, if any, in marital status, relationship status, and reasons for separation where applicable. Information about respondents' sexual orientations, sex frequencies, and attitudes towards sexual monogamy were also collected. Demographic information includes age, race/ethnicity, gender, level of education, household composition, religion, political party affiliation, and household income.
The data is being released in two parts: part one is available for public use and part two is available for restricted use. The public use data contains Waves 1-5, including the addition of nine variables collecting information such as race, household income, whether the respondent was born outside of the United States, zip code relative to rural area, and respondents' living arrangements between birth and 16 years of age. The restricted use data contains Waves 1-3, and differs from the public use data by including FIPS codes for state of marriage and state of residence, town or city where the respondent was raised, and qualitative variables revised by the Principal Investigator (Waves 1-5), consisting of respondent's answers to how they first met their partner, the quality of their relationship in their own words, why they broke up if applicable and if they have an open relationship.

《伴侣相遇与维系方式调查》（How Couples Meet and Stay Together，HCMST）调查了美国人与配偶及恋爱伴侣的相遇方式，并对比了传统伴侣与非传统伴侣的差异。本数据集包含五波次收集的数据。第一波次中，受访者被问及关系状态（包括当前伴侣的性别、族裔及种族）、父母受教育程度；还被问及与伴侣的居住安排、受访者及/或其伴侣从出生至16岁期间主要居住的国家、州和城市，以及双方是否就读于同一所高中/学院/大学或在同一城镇长大。此外，数据还涵盖关系的法律状态、伴侣关系合法化所在的城市/州，以及受访者此前的婚姻次数。最后，受访者需回忆与伴侣相遇的方式、时间及地点，父母对其伴侣的看法，并描述自身感知的关系质量。

第二波次在第一波次一年后对受访者进行随访，收集了受访者（若有）的婚姻状态、关系状态、居住安排变化，以及适用情况下的分居原因。第三波次在第二波次一年后随访，收集了受访者前两波次报告的关系相关信息，再次涵盖关系状态变化及分居原因（若有）。第四波次在第三波次两年后随访，除关系状态及分居原因外，还包含受访者及其伴侣的主观吸引力水平信息。第五波次收集了受访者（若有）的婚姻状态、关系状态变化及适用情况下的分居原因更新数据，还收集了受访者的性取向、性行为频率及对性专一的态度信息。人口统计信息包括年龄、种族/族裔、性别、受教育程度、家庭构成、宗教信仰、政党隶属关系及家庭收入。

本数据分为两部分发布：第一部分可供公开使用，第二部分为限制使用。公开使用数据包含第1至5波次数据，新增九个变量，涵盖种族、家庭收入、受访者是否出生于美国境外、邮政编码对应的农村区域情况，以及受访者出生至16岁期间的居住安排等信息。限制使用数据包含第1至3波次数据，与公开使用数据的差异在于：包含婚姻所在州及居住所在州的FIPS编码、受访者成长的城镇、以及首席研究员（Principal Investigator）修订的定性变量（第1至5波次）——这些变量包括受访者对首次相遇方式的回答、用自身语言描述的关系质量、适用情况下的分手原因，以及是否存在开放式关系。